Does anyone know how many facilities hold spotted cuscus? I am only aware of the port moresby national park that have successfully bred them this year.
I believe a few Australian collections hold individual specimens too. EDIT: Sorry, I'd misinterpreted some information. As far as we can establish, there aren't any (or perhaps very few, at best) in Australian zoos currently.
Not aware of any spotted cuscus in captivity in Australia. Pretty rare taxon in northern Queensland and I'm guessing that those kept in the recent past (Taronga, Perth) may have been descendents of individuals imported from New Guinea. Perth individual died in mid 90s was the last one that I am aware of.
I have 1998 as the last date for Perth. The first zoo in Australia recorded as holding spotted cuscus was Healesville in 1949, and I suspect that was probably an Australian specimen. Quite a few appear to have been imported in the 60s and 70s from New Guinea, mostly by Taronga - the first to breed them was the Australian Reptile Park in the 70s but they were also kept at Melbourne in the 70s, Taronga from the mid-60s through to the mid-80s, and Perth from the late-70s to late-90s. Outside Australian zoos, I just came across this individual at Wenling Zoo in China in 2011: BringItToLight ? Mystery Zoo Critter Likely 'Dumped Novelty Pet' And this one at Kumamoto City Zoo in Japan in 2012: Common Spotted Cuscus - a photo on Flickriver
a photo of this animal: Cuscus (spotted), [i.e. Healesville] Sanctuary. [picture] , State Library of Victoria With some further reading, I think the Healesville animal(s) probably originated in New Guinea after all. David Fleay himself collected a number of live spotted cuscus in New Guinea, as he writes in this 1948 newspaper article: http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/69118654
I have been looking through my photo collection, for other things, as it happens. I have photos (transparencies) of spotted cuscus at Stuttgart (1973) and Twycross (1977): neither date matches with the dates on Zootierliste. Alan
Wasn't the Twycross animal(s) part of the New Guinea import that included Doria's(?) tree kangaroos and a fruit bat (I think) mentioned in a Molly Badham book? Late 70s would sound about right.
